


Love is Timeless (Time After Time)

by eri_quin



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Age Difference, Aged-Up Character(s), Causal loop, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Multi, Older Man/Younger Woman, Older Woman/Younger Woman, Polyamory, Threesome - F/F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eri_quin/pseuds/eri_quin
Summary: She wakes up to two pairs of beautiful eyes –green and blue gemstones that watches her in fascination and concern. They belong to two beautiful angels who take her in and lets her fall hard from their heaven, until she realizes it’s too late. But Gabriel and Emilie Agreste have never played fair and they never intend to with Marinette, who thinks that all she wants is to go home and yet parts of her already thinks she is."Hello, mon mignon," she smiles at Marinette. "I'm Emilie and this is Gabriel. We will take care of you, little one."Marinette could only blink and close her eyes, because the world is strange and her body is still in agony.She feels herself get picked up and opens her eyes slightly, and her breath hitches as she recognizes the man who holds her.Gabriel is Gabriel Agreste, and he's holding her like a princess."This is too much," she mutters and thinks it's a dream.She closes her eyes once again and wills herself to sleep and hopefully wake up to reality.
Relationships: Emilie Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Emilie Agreste
Comments: 17
Kudos: 118





	1. First Sequence

**Author's Note:**

> Don't like the pairing? Find the exit yourself and don't bother me. I've got 20+ years of writing and am just too old for your immature shit. Otherwise, enjoy and have an open mind~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playlist:  
> Time After Time by Joseph William Morgan (Cyndi Lauper cover)  
> Time After Time by Boyce Avenue (Cyndi Lauper cover)

_I: Caught Up in Circles_

Marinette's breath comes in large huffs, trying to catch her breath when all she wants is to collapse –she doesn't want to take too long of a break, not when the akumatized villain is wrecking more damage than is usual.

But she also knows that she can't keep this up.

She's unsure where Chat Noir is. She can't get the others there either and so she's all alone, fighting tirelessly against this villain and ready to fall at any moment. She's terrified and alone and she just wants to stop for a moment –

Marinette's not sure what happens next. All she knows is she's blinded by bright, bright light and she's falling.

She falls and hits the ground hard, and it hurts but she mostly knows that her body aches and is in pain and she doesn't know what happened.

So she finally lets herself go and blacks out thereafter.

When she awakes again, it's to two beautiful eyes, like gemstones that glitter and shine prettily for her –one pair is as light and smooth as jade and the other reminds her all too much of blue diamonds.

She's fallen so, so far from the heavens that she thinks she might've been found by angels that had chased after her.

"Hello, _mon mignon_ ," she smiles at Marinette. "I'm Emilie and this is Gabriel. We will take care of you, little one."

Marinette could only blink and close her eyes, because the world is strange and her body is still in agony.

She feels herself get picked up and opens her eyes slightly, and her breath hitches as she recognizes the man who holds her.

 _Gabriel_ is _Gabriel Agreste_ , and he's holding her like a princess.

"This is too much," she mutters and thinks it's a dream.

She closes her eyes once again and wills herself to sleep and hopefully wake up to reality.

_II: Confusion Isn't New (But This Time Is)_

Her angels with their perfect marble visage, gemstone eyes, and silky strands of hair are…

Adrien's parents.

Emilie Agreste, who is beautiful and kind and excited about Marinette, is here in the flesh and not a memory for a boy and his father. And there is Gabriel, who isn't distant but careful and sweet and thoughtful.

And without any questions, they take her in and take care of her, letting her rest enough to realize that after she'd hit the ground, she had devolve back into plain old Marinette –she's terrified at the thought that they know both of her identities, even though she knows that Ladybug isn't one they'd recognize.

The magic from her Miraculous has managed to heal her enough, but there are still leftover aches and pain, bruises and cuts that the two help mend. She wants to ask them what happened, why were they there, but she can't actually even speak for a few days. Instead, she's confined to a bed and being helped by them recover.

She has suspicions of where is… _when_ she is because Emilie ( _"I insist, mon mignon! And Gabriel is Gabriel."_ ) is still here and Gabriel looks younger, less lines and lighter eyes. She wears colorful clothes that spin around her in joyous movement, while Gabriel doesn't wear his classic outfit. He wears dark colors and not always suits, smiles more (that are tiny but there) and he speaks quietly but kindly.

Adrien hasn't even been born yet.

Marinette doesn't know these strangers and feels out of her depth ( _she lets slip that she's from the future before she silences herself)._ But Emilie is more than happy to have her around and Gabriel is a steady presence she has grown to depend on in the short time she has been there.

"Are you weary, Marinette?" he asks her one day, helping her stand from the bed. She's getting better and can move around now, and the pain has mostly gone.

"I feel better," she tells him honestly, but he gives her a quiet look that says more than he says aloud. She swallows slowly and looks away from him. "I just want to go home," she whispers.

He doesn't answer her, but silently pours her a glass of water and hands her two pills for whatever lingering pain and soreness she had.

Emilie comes in then, smiling brightly and happily.

" _Ma choupinette_! I've gotten you some new clothes!"

Marinette puts on a smile because she knows she's somehow in the past and Emilie Agreste adores her for some reason and Gabriel Agreste isn't a distant idol for her to worship from afar but just a man ready to be quietly supportive.

_III: Suitcase Full of Memories_

Marinette has spent a week in the Agreste Manor recovering and a total of two where she is trying to gather her bearings and coexist with these earthly angels. Emilie and Gabriel are devoted to and loving with each other, and she feels awed and sad.

She remembers how she felt for their son and for Luka, and wonders if she'll ever find love like these two have. She has always wished in her heart to have the kind of love that would bring her this kind of happiness and looking through the life she's had so far, she realizes how lonely she's been.

Even her partner Chat Noir, no matter how much he's flirted with her, has only ever brought her to feel nothing other than deep friendship and Marinette finds herself aching for the kind of companionship she witnesses with Gabriel and Emilie.

He looks at Emilie like she's the sun and she looks at Gabriel like he's the moon, and there's nothing more breathtaking than the way they gaze at each other.

Loneliness fills her more than ever each time and more and more she wants to go home.

" _Mon soleil_ ," she hears Gabriel whisper to Emilie (his sun, his love, his everything), "you're thinking long and hard about her."

"You always know what I'm thinking, Gabriel," Emilie murmurs. "But she is always so sad and homesick all the time. I want to make her happy."

"You do your best always," he says and there's silence and Marinette wonders if he's kissed her. "Time will past. We'll just try to make her happy in the meantime."

"Ah, _mon coeur_."

Marinette slips away then and heads back to her room.

* * *

Sometimes she thinks back to the others and wonders what're they doing. She wonders about the villain she'd been fighting and if one of or all of the others had managed to get their Miraculouses and defeat the villain, or if the villain has managed to continue to wreck havoc. She wonders about Chat Noir and where was he. She wonders about Hawk Moth and if he's won already, and for the first time she also wonders why he's been doing all this.

But then she almost always gets dragged into her memories, and thinks about her mother and father, and lazy Sundays where she and her dad bakes all morning long or days where she makes dumplings with her mother, especially for Chinese New Year. She starts craving it, to the point she distractedly mentions it wistfully to her caretakers one day. The rest of the morning has her hiding in her room and trying not to cry when she thinks she'll never see her parents ever again.

When lunch comes around however, a knock on her door has her reluctantly go to open it and she sees Gabriel standing there awkwardly, holding two cartons of Chinese takeout.

"It's probably not the same as what you wanted, but you said you were craving it?" He holds out a carton and she opens it to find Chinese dumplings inside. "I thought about ordering you some and Emilie thought it was a good idea and found a restaurant that's highly recommended."

She finds herself smiling, feeling fond of her two angels (she won't ever tell them her thoughts about them or what she has consistently called them in her mind, but it is what it is about them to her).

"Emilie?" she asks.

"She had to go to a photoshoot," he says, smiling faintly at her. She feels a blush come on, but inwardly shakes her head. Not that she is wrong from observing how handsome Gabriel is. He's as handsome as Emilie is utterly beautiful, and it's a wonder why Marinette is not a stuttering mess around these two like she is around their son in the future. "Do you want privacy?"

And she doesn't want to be alone because she knows if she is, she'll just go back to being depressed and remembering.

"Would you like to come in?" she invites awkwardly and he steps into the room he'd gifted her with all the grace of a supermodel, and she distantly thinks about the old photos she ran across of him in his youth, where he _was_ a model and he's as handsome as ever.

They end up sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, eating Chinese dumplings and joking about his old modeling career and she thinks she's never felt more comfortable.

* * *

Fashion has always been Gabriel's calling, he tells her. He's been designing since he was young, like her, and quickly became recognized for his style. He'd also had photoshoots on the side, most of the time modeling his own designs. That is how he meets Emilie, who models his work like she is made for them and the two fell easily in love.

It makes Marinette sigh to herself and long for her own love story in that way, something so pretty and fateful, something that clicks just so and quickly with just the right person.

"Emilie and I," he says, voice ever soft and lips turned up in that strange kind way that she is unfamiliar with him, "have had years together. We married a few years ago and have been happy together."

She wants that sort of happiness.

"I know memories can be beautiful and sometimes they're nothing but pain," he says quietly while reaching out for her hands. "And you have many memories. Whatever they are, whenever they get too much…Emilie and I are here for you, _mon bijou_."

Her breath hitches and she watches Gabriel with wide eyes, breathless even as he stands up and plants a barely there kiss, lips fluttering like a butterfly on her forehead, before leaving her.

_IV: The Clocks Ticks and Yet I Think of You_

It is the first time Gabriel has called her any sort of endearment. Emilie is full of them –always bestowing Marinette with an endless litany of them. But Gabriel is a little more reserved, so she can't imagine why on earth he would call her his _'jewel'_.

It's pretty and lovely and unique and…and she admits she likes it. Emilie is boundless with her affection, not that she understands why, and her seemingly constant endearments make Marinette swell with her own affection towards her. Gabriel though…he's never been unkind to her in this time, and he's even not as distant and aloof like Marinette is used to in her own time. In fact, he's been very caring and sweet towards her, and has even been supportive for everything.

He's never, though, called her anything but Marinette.

She wishes she has Tikki there to talk to, but ever since her fall into the past, she's been unable to activate her earrings or has seen Tikki. She feels worried and anxious about her little friend's disappearance and inability to appear to her, but she's unable to do much but stay with Emilie and Gabriel at their home.

She has no identity, no other friends and her family wouldn't know her (if they were even in the city). There is no money or any other resource to her name. Their kindness in taking her in is a blessing and she can't understand it, nor why they seem to care for her so much.

But it makes her warm all over and she finds that she has just as quickly come to care for them as well.

"You have such lovely hair," Emilie hums, brushing Marinette's dark strands fondly. They've grown in the time she's spent there with them, and she's wary of the fact she's spent _too_ much time in the past.

"You haven't asked anything about me except my name," Marinette finally brings up.

Emilie pauses in her brushing, looking down at her with a strange look. The pretty woman is silent and Marinette starts to worry that she's upset her.

"I don't want to or need to know anything," Emilie then says simply, smiling gently at her then. "You are our Marinette. Right, Gabriel?"

The two of them turn towards the silent man, who's been in the background at his desk and hasn't said a word or brought attention to him. His blue gemstones for eyes look at Marinette, digging into her soul almost with the intensity of his gaze, and shakes his head.

"No, we don't need to know anything. You are our Marinette," he agrees with his wife and Marinette inwardly flounders and doesn't understand these beautiful people.

And Emilie embraces her from behind, her light strands of hair brushing against Marinette's cheeks and feeling like feathers.

* * *

She feels like time is running out and the clock is ticking on her. But she also admits that she loves this time with Emilie and Gabriel. Emilie who dances as she walks, who seems eternally happy. Gabriel with his quiet sort of happiness, his understated kindness, and unexpected sweetness that she remembers from Adrien.

She should be in the future, but she thinks that she's really, really happy in the past.

"What is your favorite color?" Gabriel asks and she smiles to herself.

"Red," she answers, remembers her Ladybug outfit and laughs freely.

He smiles at her and nods towards his wife, who is practicing the violin. "She likes white. Reminds her of gardenias, which are her favorite flowers."

"What about you?" she blurts out before blushing.

"I like shades of silver and gray," he admits to her.

"Gabriel! Let's perform a duet for our Marinette!"

Gabriel smiles slightly at her one last time before joining his wife, and Marinette listens to the sweet sounds of the violin and piano in concert with each other.

* * *

When she sees Gabriel's new suit later, she's torn between amusement, dismay and fear. Amusement because Gabriel still looks like a candy cane in that getup, and dismay and fear because it's like she's ticking ever closer towards the future –her present.

She realizes she's not keen on leaving her angels and she wants to stay in their presence just a little longer.

"You look like a candy cane, _mon coeur_ ," Emilie dares to say what everyone would never to his face, grinning as she teases her husband.

Gabriel just waves it off, smiling in his understated way. "I have all our favorite colors on, don't I?" he says blasé.

Marinette's breath leaves her and she stares at him, feeling her heart constrict while overwhelming joy, sadness and affection fill her. To know that his iconic outfit from the future was a combination of their favorite colors…that the red he wears was because of _her_ …

"You look utterly silly," she chokes out, even when tears fill her eyes.

She doesn't see them on either side of her, and only knows they've come close when they kiss wet cheeks tenderly.

_V: If You're Lost (Look and Find Me)_

"Do you want to go home still?" Emilie asks her as they lie down on the grass and gaze at the blue sky.

Marinette wants to say yes. Opens her mouth to say yes. But she can't, even though she does still want to go home.

Before she can make up her mind, Emilie turns on her side and leans over Marinette.

"We can be home," she whispers and leans down.

Her lips feel soft and brush against Marinette's in a featherlight caress.

Marinette finds it harder to say she wants to go home.

* * *

When night comes, Marinette is still brooding over her situation. She sits lonely in the balcony by Gabriel's atelier and tries to sort out her emotions. Part of her also feels guilty because Emilie and Gabriel are the perfect couple and in love, and why and how is _she_ coming in between them?

When Gabriel steps into his atelier and spots her, she thinks she might've chosen her place there because she wants to confess. So she does and she feels frantic and upset and she feels utterly helpless –until Gabriel's arms band around her and hold her carefully.

"Gabriel?" she blinks and feels lost.

But that's been a common feeling since she's gotten there.

Gabriel leans back and looks at her solemnly, but he never lets go. "You live in your past," he murmurs. "Maybe it is Emilie and I's future, but we don't know or don't care to know. Let the future come as is. What my wife and I _do_ know is you fell from the skies for us and we adore you, our _ciel étoilé_."

Her heart skips beats and she doesn't know if she understands him right. His lips move just the slightest inch up and then he leans down to kiss her. Her eyes flutter close and she allows the truth in her mind to be heard.

Somehow she finds herself in love with human angels with eyes like jewels.

* * *

Emilie is cheerful and gracefully flies about on dancing feet, moving about the manor without reserve or care. She takes Marinette in hand and dances with her all along hallways and rooms, and she shares her day's goings with her.

Gabriel works furtively with his brand, and when he creates something new, he's excitedly sharing it with Marinette. They stay in his atelier and he pulls her into his work with her, sketching and designing and it's like Marinette's professional dreams come true.

And then there's Emilie's kisses which remind her of spring and the quicker brushes of her soft lips on Marinette's skin feel like feathers tickling her. When it comes to Gabriel, she feels she is reminded of autumn and in his more teasing moods, his brief fluttery kisses are like butterflies landing on her before flitting away.

Thoughts of home slowly slip away and she doesn't think on it too much anymore, not when she feels so at home with them.

She just knows that Emilie is the sun, Gabriel is the moon, and they think of her as their starry sky.

Started 3/28/20 – Completed 4/1/20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, this was supposed to be one long one-shot (though I have a longer, multi-chap version of this in mind for later on), but I hate editing and this looked like a good place to end it for now and continue on –so looks like it's going to be a 2-3 shot fic instead. I hope you all enjoyed this and let me know what you think!


	2. Second Sequence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playlist:  
> Hallelujah by Boyce Avenue (Leonard Cohen cover)

_VI: The Minor Fall and the Major Lift_

She feels warm and safe, covered on both sides, encased in arms of softness and hard strength. Emilie's breath ghosts across her forehead while Gabriel's lips touches the back of her head over and over like light butterfly touches. Pressed up against her with their arms around her, they easily entangle them with her, with each other, until they're all one single unit and cannot think to where one of them ends and where any of them had begun.

She shouldn't have gotten so attached to them, but she had and she adores them so much that sometimes she can't breathe or feel anything but adulation for her angels.

Her body has healed and she lives with them still. Marinette has even ventured out into the city, which is the same and yet not. Some things are new to her but have been gone by the time she will be born. Her family isn't there (she couldn't help look), and stays away from then on, to stave out the heartache and homesickness.

Emilie mumbles something in her sleep and Marinette keeps still.

She thinks now, to how long she has been there, since she's been with them –a year. It's amazing to find that in her recovery and then settling in, she has already been in the past for a year and has already grown comfortable where she is and with her current situation.

The city is peaceful and there are no akuma or Hawk Moth to terrorize anyone. She's sad that she hasn't been able to see Tikki or talk to her, but although she misses her companion, the weight of the world seems to have slid off of her shoulders.

Emilie shifts again and mumbles some more, and she hears Gabriel sigh behind her.

"Marinette, you think loudly, _mon bijou_ ," he murmurs, already moving to slide off the bed. She carefully leaves Emilie's arms, while the older woman hums in her sleep and then adorably moves to sprawl all over their bed, taking it all up with her limbs askew.

She and Gabriel share an amused look before they leave together. They move to his atelier, where she sits by him as he idly putters around his main work desk.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks, and she thinks about it.

"I was just thinking about how long I've been here, about Emilie…you," she answers honestly, but doesn't relate to him her conflicting emotions, her worries, or how utterly peaceful she is around them now (even as she is afraid of how attached she is).

He gives her a considerable look but does not push her. Instead, he reaches for a book in one of his drawers.

"You know how I design for Emilie a lot, yes?" he asks, and she nods because she _does_ know. She admittedly is even a bit jealous and tries not to be, but she so wants Gabriel (her idol, her friend, her lover) to think of her and find her an inspiration, a muse for him.

Gabriel smiles softly and opens his book. "I couldn't think of anything when I went to try to design a dress," she tries not to feel the disappointment, much less show it, "but I thought of something else."

That makes her sit up straighter, curious and even hopeful, and he shows her the page he's flipped to. Her gasp is loud, and she was unable to have kept it back in the first place.

" _Mon bijou_ …my beautiful, beautiful jewel…" he murmurs, and she stares at the sketch, awed. "I thought it fitting I design jewelry after you –you, whom is Emilie and I's sky of stars, who draws us in with your bright light…I hope you adore them."

She is given the book and stares with trembling vulnerability at the parure Gabriel has designed in honor of her. The extravagant pattern of stars are edged out around the triangular shapes that make the necklace, diamond crystals somehow shining even in a black and white sketch. The earrings are as pointed and starlike, and the accompanying tiara makes her draw a deep breath.

It's _beautiful_ and she doesn't know if she can turn the page.

But she does and she sees how Gabriel has gone into further detail. One page focuses simply on the earrings, while another goes into extravagant detail on the necklace. It's the page on the tiara itself that makes her feel out of breath, queenly and elegant in design.

"Do you like them?" he asks and every question from him so far that night has felt loaded and so much, and she turns to him with teary eyes, gently dropping the book on the work desk and standing up.

She stands on her toes and presses her lips to his, feeling his own arms wrap around her waist. When she pulls back, her smile is sad and lingers with longing.

"I adore them, Gabriel," she says sincerely and leans back into him, hiding her face against his neck and refusing to say anything about the tears that drop.

Marinette is from the future and knows she can't have this.

Emilie will be gone somehow and Gabriel will not know her, won't remember or recognize her.

Those are the facts she lives by every day that she tries to live happily in peace with them.

_VII: Every Breath is a Hallelujah_

She and Emilie bask in the sun, eyes closed and relaxed against the grass. They do this often and it is usually their thing together. Gabriel hates the outside really and prefers the indoors. It amuses them how prickly their lover is about being outdoors and of sweat and of dirt, and they tease him sometimes about his meticulous nature.

They, on the other hand, don't mind being outside of the manor and laying on the grass, enjoying the sun beating down on them, or the slight sheen of sweat that gleans their skin from the heat. When their activities include a more pleasurable variety, Gabriel does not mind the sweat that builds; but in this, he'd probably hide in the manor with his air conditioning and ready shade.

"Did Gabriel show you his work yet?" Emilie asks and Marinette looks to her side at her.

"He did."

"Did you like it?"

"It's overwhelming," she whispers. "It's so beautiful, but I'm hardly worth that. How on earth did he ever get inspired to design that over _me_?"

Emilie moves onto her side and kisses her sweetly. She pulls back to smile gently at her and brushes her fingers lightly against Marinette's cheek.

"You don't see yourself the way he sees you. The way _we_ see you."

The blonde moves closer and brushes feathery light kisses all over Marinette's face and they stay like that for a while.

* * *

Marinette smiles in contentment and just a bit of longing at seeing Gabriel and Emilie kiss on screen, white on the bride and groom, who elegantly crosses the pathway from the gazebo towards the camera and wherever their destination was past it. She's always dreamt of getting married like that, dressed in traditional white and marrying the love of her life.

She knows she's already somehow met the loves of her life (both of them), but they're already married, and she can't marry both of them anyway.

That's not even counting that she's not even in her correct time.

"Marinette, there you are!" Emilie exclaims and she's too flustered to have been caught watching their wedding video.

The blond couple enter the suite's living area, notices her curled up in front of the television, and head over to her, They sit on either side of her and turn to watch their wedding, and both of them slide one of their hands into one of Marinette's.

When it's over, Gabriel kisses her first; soft, slow and thorough –lips gentle as he entices her to him, tongue caressing patiently and causing shivers up and down her spine. Emilie shuffles closer to them and she feels her breath as she nears their faces, kisses Marinette's cheek first and then Gabriel's, all while the two of them are still kissing. She couldn't help the moan, even if she wanted to, and she blindly reaches a hand out to search out Emilie, while her other hand runs up Gabriel's chest and slides to rest against the back of his neck.

In her happiness and feelings of belonging, she doesn't notice as Gabriel pulls her onto his lap, how Emilie helps her along, or how she moves to sit behind Marinette and between his legs and all pressed up against her. When she notices it in the vagueness of her mind, she finds it feels right and comfortable, and like it has been something that should've been all along.

They're tall and all graceful limbs, and she's always been petite, so she fits perfectly between them like a matching puzzle piece.

"I love you," she whispers in the dark room and they don't pause at all, as if they've known all this time.

They echo her in the way they hold on tighter to her.

* * *

The next day, she wakes up in a tangle of limbs and breathing languidly. She stays up and stays that way for long moments, before Emilie wakes and starts laying kisses on her lips, and Gabriel groans as he wakes and curls in more around her. Both of them have their limbs wrapped around her and clasped onto each other, and Marinette never had a hope entangling herself from them.

"Marinette," Gabriel murmurs sleepily. "Emilie and I have something to ask you," he says as Emilie already moves away from her and leaves the bed.

Gabriel sits up slowly, the blanket falling low on his waist, and gives her a lethargic grin. Emilie returns to their bed and crawls closer to them, laying on her front and grinning freely, holding a small, thin and round box, all dark red and lined with silk. Emilie opens it to Marinette's surprised eyes and dropped jaw, taking in the simple, delicate bracelet laying on a bed of velvet.

On a braided cord of gold, five northern stars were connected, tiny diamonds placed in the middle of them and the corded ends ending in a bolo clasp that connected both sides together.

"We figure, as much as Gabriel's parure design was meant for you and inspired by you, it wouldn't be your style and something you'd wear around all the time. Something simple and elegant like this was better," Emilie smiles brightly at her.

Gabriel takes the bracelet from the box and takes one of Marinette's wrists, sliding the bracelet on and adjusting it with the clasp to fit. She brings her wrist closer to her eyes, thinking how beautiful it is and how much she loves it.

"That's not exactly the question we wanted to ask," Gabriel continues smoothly. "We wanted to ask if you would be ours, like we would be yours…committedly."

"We are, have been together and are serious in that companionship already. However…" Emilie adds on. "Even if it won't be legal, won't you marry us?"

Marinette stills, eyes widening as she stares at her paramours –confused, taken aback, _elated_. She knows it wouldn't be legal since it's not possible to marry more than one person, but she wants them both and they both want her, and it's everything she's ever wanted and nothing at all she expected.

"Yes," she says breathlessly and it isn't long until one night they find themselves outside the manor, in the gazebo (larger than the one from Gabriel and Emilie's wedding) and standing close together. They say quiet vows under the cover of the night, as Gabriel slips on the engagement ring he'd had made for her (this had been planned for a _long_ time, she realizes) and Emilie slips on the matching wedding band on after. She has nothing to give them, unplanned this all was for her, and has nothing to her name anyway.

But she smiles happily at them and reciprocates everything, enjoying this small, private ceremony of theirs.

* * *

Another year has passed. Marinette has found herself settled in this life and has lived with Emilie and Gabriel long enough to know their habits, their likes, dislikes, their preferences for all things…She also has grown comfortable enough, even without exchanging public affection with them, to go out into the city with them. Slowly without them too.

At one point, she even passes her family's bakery, which has finally set up shop where she remembers it to be, and her breath stops. She sees them through the window, smiling at each other and moving around to get ready for the day. Her father laughing a full belly laugh at her smiling mother…

Thankfully, this is one of those times she's out with Gabriel and Emilie, and she slips her hand into Marinette's and he puts an arm around her to guide her away. They don't stay in that position for long, as too many people gossip, but it's enough to calm Marinette down.

She doesn't say anything to them, but she doesn't need to.

* * *

Some weeks pass and Gabriel and she are working together in his atelier, when Emilie comes happily strolling into the room.

"My loves! _Mon ceour, mon mignon_! I have news," she is all smiles for them.

Gabriel raises an eyebrow, not even overly reacting, but Marinette grows excited and curious.

And then Emilie holds up a white stick with colored lines and Marinette stares.

"You're pregnant?" Gabriel says startled, standing up abruptly and heading over.

Marinette slowly stands up after and follows even more slowly. Emilie is chatting, but she knows nothing of what she says while she stares at Emilie's stomach. Her hands, without thought, lightly touch Emilie's stomach and she breathes out only one thing.

" _Adrien_ ," she murmurs before blinking and looking at the other two.

They look back at her, but they're smiling and she's still feeling lost.

"Adrien it is," Emilie says and Marinette startles.

"Oh! You don't have to," she starts out. "Don't let me push the future at you –"

"You're not and it doesn't matter," Gabriel waves it off. "I like the name as well. I wouldn't have thought of it –but it would be a good name for our child, boy or girl."

Marinette feels dizzy, but she holds herself together. She also wonders at time and how things don't _actually_ change, even if she is there. Things even feel meant to be, and she wonders.

Has she always meant to be there?

_VIII: Love's Not a Victory March_

When Adrien is born, Marinette is there. She feels strange at seeing her ex-crush as a baby, for being there, but at the same time the loves of her life are there and they _want_ her to be there. She isn't going to leave them because of the uneasiness and awkwardness she feels. Awkwardness was a given, what with the situation with baby Adrien…but it's the uneasiness that something is coming, something that will change everything.

She doesn't like it.

But baby Adrien is born regardless and she can't help the smile as she holds him in her arms, after insisting his parents hold him first. She runs a finger down his cheek and wants to cry, because she feels both homesick (which she hasn't felt in a long time) and so, so happy to meet a familiar face, to meet her _friend_ again, even if it's like this.

She also, despite her uneasiness, adores and becomes attached to baby Adrien, just by the sake of him being so soft and fragile, held in her arms and knowing nothing, and being as utterly sweet as a baby can. It surprises her, the maternal feelings she quickly grows, and she wonders at how the two of them will have such a different relationship now.

Emilie and Gabriel asks her to be his godmother, and she both laughs in amusement and hysteria. She's going to be _Adrien's_ godmother. It is the strangest thought, but she accepts anyway.

Because of course she'd help take care and love him, even if it's a different love this time around.

* * *

Adrien grows and Emilie starts working less, spending more time at home with Marinette and Adrien. Gabriel works more, but he's starting to work at home more often, enjoying being there with them when he can.

Everything eventually becomes routine and familiar again, and Marinette thinks those strange feelings she had would leave.

But then, after her duo contemplate needing an assistant so they can work more as a family, Marinette is suddenly meeting Natalie Sancoeur, who looks much the same as when she first met the woman, if maybe a bit younger.

Natalie is professional and courteous, but she eyes Marinette curiously. Marinette knows she's a curiosity and not widely known about –they've never gone public with their relationship, and she more often than not stays home.

But even as she doesn't mind and could live with being a secret, Gabriel sternly and clearly makes it clear to Natalie exactly who Marinette is and who she is to them. Emilie even possessively curls around one of Marinette's arms, watching the introductions carefully, not at all like her usual friendly, happy self.

Natalie only nods and says nothing about it, but Marinette hides her unease inside, even as it has returned again.

* * *

She's diligent, her paramours' new assistant. Marinette remembers she always had been, even when it was just Gabriel she was working for. She's quiet, but she isn't a wallflower –she's more efficient and will talk when she needs to.

She also wonders if Natalie _does_ have a problem with Marinette's presence and her addition to the traditional marriage, even if Natalie hasn't said anything or shown an indication that she has. But Marinette's not dumb and knows how unusual her relationship is.

Gabriel may be indifferent to it and Emilie absolutely blasé, but society has different lenses and there is now an outsider in their life.

So she keeps out of the way as much as she can, playing and taking care of Adrien, especially when they're alone and Emilie is working somewhere and Gabriel can't work from home. She doesn't think Natalie will seek her out at these times, but one time she does and she doesn't know what to do but hold awkwardly to a fussy Adrien.

However, Natalie only smiles and crouches down to her level on the floor, smoothing Adrien's hair back.

"It's good they have you," the older woman muses. "The Agreste are normally portrayed as cold or so high above everything and everyone, even though we all know how they look to each other warmly. But when you are around, they light up and become even more human and their warmth even extends to others. You make them less like stone."

She's almost speechless and admits she hasn't even noticed that. To her, the two have always been kind and warm, and she never thinks about them being so cold to others.

Natalie's smile widens a bit. "You make their ice melt a bit, Miss Marinette."

Marinette smiles back, feeling content that someone has acknowledged and accepted her strange, strange relationship with her angels.

"I fell for their gems for eyes," she confesses. "I don't know why they fell for me."

"If their eyes are gems," Natalie smirks. "Then it's because you are a singular gem yourself."

She laughs freely and feels glad that she herself can acknowledge her relationship to someone else for once.

_IX: Now It's a Cold and Broken Hallelujah_

When Adrien turns a year old, they celebrate as a family. They even go out together to a restaurant, with Natalie joining in. Marinette tries to stay back, hanging around Natalie, but Emilie pouts about it. Pouting about it, Marinette can ignore (she's done it before when Emilie tries to get her way for silly things or infeasible demands), but Gabriel doesn't take no for an answer and drags her over, plops her right next to Adrien.

"You're ours and we're yours," he tells her firmly. "And you are Adrien's godmother. You have a _right_ to be right here with us."

Natalie is even coaxed a little closer, so Marinette sighs in mock exasperation but smiles warmly at her loves, leaning over Adrien and his soft blond baby hair. Adrien gurgles happily back at her and she finds that the occasional stare at them, especially when Gabriel sometimes kisses her hand or Emilie randomly hugs her from behind, doesn't bother her.

She does feel her heart stop at the gifts that Natalie bestows Emilie and Gabriel before they leave the restaurant, separating from them afterwards with a pleased air. Both of her paramours turn to her with beaming faces, and though they're happy, there's something in her gut that says something will change.

Something will change and she will not be happy about it.

"We have two presents for you," Emilie told her in excitement.

"But it can wait until we go home," Gabriel says smoothly, adjusting his hold on his son and giving Emilie a look that has the blonde woman sigh theatrically.

It's almost enough to distract Marinette from her worries, but it's not enough in the end. She stays quiet all the way back to their home, and she knows they notice and worry, but they have always been prone to be so over her.

They settle Adrien down into his crib in the nursery and then take Marinette to Gabriel's atelier, where both angelic blonds hold a small box each out to her.

"What are they?" Marinette asks apprehensively.

"They won't bite," Gabriel's amusement shows and he opens it up, revealing a simple amethyst-colored oval brooch, gleaming tauntingly at her from its perch in the jewelry case.

Emilie opens hers next and it is a larger brooch than the one Gabriel has, shaped to look like a peacock, light sea-green 'feathers' fanned out with a sapphire-colored gem at the bottom center, in the middle of the 'head'.

She knows what they are immediately, can feel the magic and power thrum through her.

"In the beginning, you used to mutter about Miraculouses," Emilie says, all proud and excited. "We never pushed you, but we never forgot either. We researched it ourselves and managed to find these two. Well, Natalie found and retrieved them for us."

"And we want you to have them," Gabriel adds, watching her closely, frowning at her reaction.

But Marinette's mind is putting things together faster than she wants it to and she starts realizing some truths.

They give the Miraculouses to her, but she's not able to have them –because this time will play out and the Butterfly Miraculous in Gabriel's hands causes trouble for all of Paris in the future, and if she had it, things wouldn't be like that in the future. And who _does_ currently have it now is Gabriel and her mind can only comprehend that that means _he is Hawk Moth_.

Her breath is caught and she feels frozen, but she reaches out to take the Miraculouses because she _has_ to have them and _cannot_ let Gabriel go down this path –

Her fingers brush against both of the Miraculouses and her earrings pulse, dragging the feeling through her whole body at the same time as her terrified eyes meet concerned and scared eyes in front of her. Feeling her heart race abnormally, sound absent, and numbness spread through her.

When she looks down at her fingers, she realizes she's fading away and looks one last time at her loves with a wobbly smile.

Marinette knew she would never be able to stay with them.

Started 4/20/20 – Completed 4/24/20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *blinks* Did not really think this would be popular or well read. Huh. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it though!
> 
> Join me: https://twitter.com/Rare_Pair_Queen  
> And my new tumblr: https://pandorasboxrarepairs.tumblr.com/


End file.
